snake eyes

“Why would someone be following me, I haven’t done anything, that doesn’t make sense” he shook his head. “If I really need to spell it out to you then I should just leave… you know what I want to know, don’t act like you don’t”

Cain shrugged, why would he need to tell him something that was only going to affect him in the long run. “Don’t know, you should be telling me that,” he said as he looked over to him. “I was gone and now I’m back. I’m not answering questions that you’re not asking.”

“Not really much of a conversationalist then, are you Cain?” she said, annoyed. “Just go buy me a drink so we can both fuck off and pretend we never met each other, yeah?”

“Don’t have much to say,” he told her with eyes forward, nodding towards the bar, sitting on one of the stools. “Whiskey sour,” he looked at her, “And whatever she wants.”

“Like hell you don’t know what I mean” Ethan said, angrily as he looked at Cain. “You disappear for a year and come back suddenly demanding I listen to you because someone was following us, what the hell was that all about?” he looked at him. “Start explaining or I leave”

He looked over towards the bar tender, nodding towards the back room letting know the man that he was going to his room. Good things come from owning a bar. As they filed in, Cain locked the door. “Someone was following us –– well.. you,” he lied perfectly. “What more do you want?” 

“Fucking coward” Alex scoffed and shook his head as Cain walked away. “This is exactly why you’re alone, Cain. It’s no one’s fault but your own” he called out before turning around and going his own way. He wasn’t going to waste his time on someone like that, he didn’t need to. He had bigger fish to fry.

He wished he was carrying. He wished he could just make him stop because he had no idea what he was talking about. A scoff left his lips, shaking his head. “I choose to be alone but say hi to Evangeline for me,” he smirked.

Chandler jumped as he heard a man’s voice, and then had someone touching him out of nowhere. He was about to yell out in surprise, but his voice caught as he heard what was happening. Why would someone be following Chandler? His hand gripped on his camera bag and that was when he realized…he was walking around with an expensive camera and this wasn’t the best part of town. He wasn’t sure that following a stranger into a dark alley was the safest thing - for all Chandler knew, nobody was following them and this guy was actually trying to steal from him - but he offered to buy Chandler a drink, so the photographer decided to go with him. “Alright.” He nodded.

Cain hovered his hand instead of touching him, noticing the stiffness of his back. “Relax, I’m only trying to help,” he mentioned, dropping his hand completely and nodding for him to follow towards a busier section of the street. “What’s your name?”

Mary Louise was making her way home from the theatre after a tiring double show day when she felt the hands on her shoulders. She sighed and rolled her eyes. This was all she needed. Some overzealous fan following her and getting handsy all for the sake of a selfie. But then she felt herself being pushed towards the dark alley way she had not been heading towards and fear rose in the pit of her stomach. The voice in her ear did not sound like an eager musical theatre fan. “What the hell? No!” she hissed in protest and pushed back against the male who was holding on to her but her tiny frame made no impression against his. “That sounds like a really bad way to get a date” she tried to make a joke of the situation hoping he would just let her go but knowing that, in this city, it was unlikely.

Why didn’t he just leave it alone? Why doesn’t he just push her aside and keep walking? Because he can’t, he can’t just do that once he already made a move on the inside. No one will attack him if he’s around someone, not with being a witness and all. But she didn’t know they were after him and not her. He did his best not to roll his eyes, looking behind them once more. A snicker almost fell through his pinched lips. A date? The last thing Cain would ever want with anyone would be a date. “If you don’t want to be killed by the man stalking you, I would suggest you shut up and follow me.” 

“And what- you can’t handle the guy either so you just run away?” she groaned, “Yeah yea, step by step, you don’t have to remind me how to walk” he said, still moving with him. Most people when they saw her didn’t expect her to be as fearless as she was, but at this point it took a lot more than a felon following her to be truly afraid. “Cain.” she repeated, “Well I’m Kennedy, figured you should know the name of the person whose drink you’re buying”

He couldn’t blame the girl, he thought he was invincible at that age but something will crush her sooner or later. He didn’t really care about the name, he wasn’t going to use her anyway, why hold onto it? “Good to know.”

Ethans heart was racing as he kept walking, step by step, just as Cain said. He didn’t know why he was still listening to him, maybe it was because he feared they were actually being followed, and stopping could have hurt him more than going with Cain. “You have to tell me what the hell is going on”

His eyes couldn’t help but roll and he so badly wanted to scoff. So far, the people he had run into had just reminded him of why it was so easy to leave and why he never reached out when the incident happened. As he kept silent for one more block, they wandered into a restaurant, one that was fairly dead and one where he could talk about business. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Alex rolled his eyes, “I’m not kidding, if you’re being followed the answer isn’t to grab a random person and walk to a bar. You know how stupid that plan is right?” he said, never being the kind of person to not speak his mind in a situation that could get him killed.

Cain just stopped walking for a moment, his blue eyes looking emotionlessly into Alex’s. “Hm,” he said, looking back to see the man had long been gone. “Forget the drink,” Cain spoke before walking away.

Flinching slightly when Cain put his hand on him, instinctively holding his hand over his firearm. “Christ man, you can’t just do that I almost shot you” he looked at him. “Who is following? You know I’m a cop, you don’t have to run from someone following you, I can handle it” he reminded before scoffing, “I know I’ll be fine, I’m not scared, you ass” he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure fine, you’ll buy me a drink. And then you’ll explain what the hell happened over the past year, how does that sound?”

Cain couldn’t even muster up a smile as his old friend spoke to him, not being able to give one back. Cops were annoying to Cain, they always have been. On one hand, if he left Alex, he could get shot and that would only get him off his back but he shook the thought from his head, keeping his lips shut. Cain kept walking, his eyes flickered towards the nearest block. “Just stop joking around and do what I’m asking of you. Then you can get your drink.”

Ethan looked over at Cain with a shocked expression on his face. “Cain?” he questioned, almost not believing his eyes. “What do you mean someones following- what the hell is happening?” he asked, keeping his eyes on Cain the whole time. Everything about this encounter seemed off to Ethan. Where had Cain gone? Why was he back? Why was he so different? Not sure what he could say, Ethan just agreed to the drink. “Yeah, sure, I guess”

Narrowing his eyes, he had no choice, he knew that. Wether it be ethics or the fact that he cared about the younger boy, he couldn’t leave him alone with the criminal following close behind. “Step by step, remember what I said,” his voice carried quietly as he kept moving with him. 

“So then let’s turn around and kick the shit out of whoever’s following, doesn’t that sound more fun?” she said as he looked over at the man. “I never turn down a free drink, so that sounds great to me” she said with a shrug, “Got a name I call you by?”

Cain wanted to roll his eyes but he knew younger people didn’t respond well to that, but he knew it was a sick joke for someone like her to go against the fellon following them. “Because you won’t survive if you do. Step by step, remember?” The man kept her moving through the crowd, doing his best to swerve in-between people. “Cain.”